


Night of the Eye

by FrostedGear



Series: One Eyed Mage AU [3]
Category: Dragonlance - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Genre: AU, Dogs, Fluff, I know nothing about dogs, I was aiming for a corgi, M/M, Mild Swearing, Raistlin is wrapped around Steel's finger and Sturm loves it, healthy!Raistlin, not dead!Sturm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:47:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostedGear/pseuds/FrostedGear
Summary: The Night of the Eye is a day where mages fulfil the requests of the non-magical public. Steel has a very specific request.Happy birthday Sturm
Relationships: Raistlin Majere/Sturm Rightblade
Series: One Eyed Mage AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823470
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Night of the Eye

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wanted to post a nice family thing for Sturm's birthday (5th August) and it's literally 1 minute to midnight on the 5th my time. I'm gonna go to bed and edit this in the morning.
> 
> Also, this is like AU of my AU. Details are subject to change. But generally the idea is Sara (the woman Kit left Steel with) told Sturm about him after the High Clerist's Tower and they share Steel like divorced parents kinda do. Steel is chill about it and so is everyone else involved.

“Daaaaaaaaad!”

Raistlin groaned, dropping his head. He could ignore it, but if the boy yelled again he would wake Sturm, who had only gotten home a few hours ago.

“Yes, Steel?” he called softly, the steps to their home rattling like a thunderstorm.

A pale hand seized the doorframe, pulling the small body of a child into the room. The boy had Kitiara’s face and dark curly hair, but the air of authority rolling off of the boy was all Sturm. An amusing notion as Steel had only known his father for a year and yet seemed to emulate the man perfectly. He even walked around with a wooden practise sword at his waist, hand on the pommel like he was on patrol. “Dad, Father won’t get out of bed,” Steel complained, the five year old stomping over to Raistlin and pulling on the sleeve of his robes. “Make him get up, he said we’d practice swords.”

Snorting softly, Raistlin gently pulled Steel off of him. “It’s barely after dawn, I’m sure your father will keep his vow once he has slept some more.”

“But _you’re_ awake.”

“I haven’t been to sleep yet,” Raistlin explained patiently, taking a sip of his tea and gesturing Steel to a chair at the kitchen table where Raistlin sat.

Clamouring up into the seat, Steel turned to him, “Why not?”

“Because I’ve a meeting with lots of wizards today. It’s called a Conclave.”

Steel nodded, lips pursing and eyebrows drawing together as he thought. “Are you excited to go?”

“Not really,” Raistlin admitted.

“So you’re scared? I was scared of meeting you and Father the first time too,” Steel added comfortingly.

A smile pulled at Raistlin’s lips. Reaching out to ruffle the boy’s hair, he shook his head. “It’s not my first time going, so I’m not really scared. I just don’t want to go.”

“Why?”

“They’ll ask the same things and get upset with me.” Raistlin shrugged, “But the rules say I have to go.”

“Wizard rules?” Steel asked. Raistlin nodded. “Are they like the Measure?”

“A little,” Raistlin agreed. “They aren’t written down though. We learn them through oral tradition. By telling each other.”

“What are the rules?”

Raistlin startled, tipping his head to the side. “Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.” Quietly, Raistlin decided only very small children and kender could sound so earnest. But nonetheless he started to explain the rules mages had to follow.

Steel listened as attentively as he did when Sturm told him the Measure or explained stances used for swordplay. Raistlin could tell by the intense furrow of his eyebrows and the occasional nod, but was thrown by Steel asking a question.

“So… on the Night of The Eye, all mages are supposed to go around offering their magic?”

“Yes. Though, as far as I’m aware, it’s an offer rarely taken up.”

“I want a dog.”

Raistlin blinked owlishly. “Pardon?”

“I want a dog,” Steel repeated patiently. “When the Night of the Eye comes I want a dog.”

Raistlin frowned thoughtfully. “But, the dog would get lonely, wouldn’t it? Your mother is a dragon tamer and so isn’t always home, and Sturm and I generally aren’t here unless it’s our turn to have you.”

Steel startled violently at that, hands smacking into the table as he jumped up in his chair. “You don’t live here?!”

“Ah… not all the time,” he admitted weakly. “When your father spends the night at the High Clerist’s Tower, I stay at the Tower of High Sorcery with Dalamar.” The only reason they’d even gotten this little shack in the cheaper area of Palanthas was because Sara had come to Sturm after the Battle of the High Clerist’s Tower and Sturm, wanting to be part of his son’s life, had found somewhere he could stay without intruding on her property. Raistlin generally used the house as a place for spare robes or where he could sit for a few hours at a time and pretend he wasn't Master of the Tower and didn't have responsibilities.

"Who's Dalamar?" asked Steel.

"My apprentice. Like a squire, but for a mage."

"Are they a good apprentice?"

Raistlin nodded, "Most of the time. He's quite tired though." Magic was generally tiring, but so was the politics required of the elf and Raistlin as they worked in the Palanthas Tower.

"Does he live in the Tower?" Raistlin nodded. "Maybe he's tired because he's there all the time? You should let him leave."

Raistlin chuckled. "Dalamar is no prisoner. He can leave and go where he wants. Just as I can come here or visit your father at the High Clerist's Tower." They seemed to have danced around the prospect of a dog successfully though, so for the moment, Raistlin would entertain Steel's strange trains of thought.

"So why is he tired but you are not?"

“Because he works very hard. I’m also tired, just not today.” Today he was nervous and didn’t want to bother Sturm by rolling and fidgeting in the bed as the knight tried to rest. “And why is it you are not tired, Little Knight?”

“Because Father said we’d train.”

“Well yes, but you’re never up this early,” Raistlin said.

Steel’s cheeks puffed out a little as he thought about it. “I don’t know. I woke up. So I’m up.”

The simplicity of it all made Raistlin smile. Rising he headed for the sink and looked over his shoulder. “Well, if neither of us are going to bed, how about I make some breakfast?”

Steel’s face almost split in two with the force of his grin. “Yeah!”

* * *

Later that afternoon Sturm was helping Steel learn blocks with his sword.

“That’s it, arms a little higher,” he urged, nudging Steel’s elbows with his hands.

“Father?”

“Hmm?”

“Dad said you guys aren’t here when I’m not.”

Sturm frowned, “Well, we don’t stop existing.”

“Yeah, but you don’t sleep in the house if I don’t.”

“Because we’re at work?”

“Yeah.”

Humming, Sturm thought on it and realised that Steel was correct. “Is that a bad thing?” he asked his son, holding his sword and showing the next block.

“Yeah!” complained the boy, swinging his sword, the wood ringing out a dull thunk as Sturm’s guard held. “If you aren’t home I can’t have a dog!”

“A… dog?”

Steel sighed bodily, his entire torso going limp for a second. “Yes, Father. I want a dog. Dad’s gonna get me one because he has to.”

“He does?” Sturm was tempted to laugh. Raistlin made a point of showing that he didn’t _have_ to do anything.

“Yeah, one of their rules is ‘on the Night of the Eye a wizard has to accept any request given’,” Steel recited. “And I want a dog.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works, Son,” Sturm tried to reason, lip curling in a grin.

“Sure it is. But I don’t want him getting lonely, and Mother says I can’t have a dog at her house, so it’ll have to be here.”

Sturm nodded, biting his lip slightly. “Do you know when the next Night of the Eye is?”

“No, but I’ll find out.”

Sturm snorted, fought to keep a snicker back. “Well. I shall leave it in your hands, Steel.”

* * *

Steel discovered the next Night of the Eye was in three weeks. And in those three weeks, he reminded Raistlin that a dog would be his wish at least once a day on the days where Steel stayed with them. All the while Sturm held back snickers and refused to meet Raistlin’s burning gaze that screamed his displeasure and need for assistance.

“I’m staying in my tower and avoiding the day entirely,” Raistlin declared the day before the Night of the Eye. They were in Sturm’s quarters in the High Clerist’s Tower barracks, the mage laid like a starfish on the bed while Sturm patiently strapped his armour on.

“Or you could just give in. It’s been three weeks,” Sturm said.

“Exactly. It’s been three weeks, Sturm. And. He. Hasn’t. Stopped.”

Sturm snorted.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Every second of it.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too.”

“Sturm, there is nowhere to put a dog. I am not moving into that abomination of a house just so your son can wrap us around his pinkie.”

“You mean wrap _you_ around his finger by your own rules.” Grinning, Sturm sat on the bed, looking down at Raistlin. “The fear doesn’t exist in the tower, take the dog with you there and let it run around with unseen servants or something.”

“But _I_ don’t want a pet!”

Taking a moment to strap his arm guards on, Sturm said, “What about if you get the dog and I agree to train it?”

“You want a dog?”

“I wouldn’t mind one,” he admitted. Raistlin groaned. “And besides,” Sturm added. “If Steel can’t find you he would run around all of Palanthas in search of a wizard to either grant his wish or to bring you to him.”

Raistlin whimpered, “Yes, he would. I’m pretty sure he has both yours and Kitiara’s stubbornness, raised to the absolute maximum.”

Laughing, Sturm lent down to peck Raistlin on the lips. “It’s exacerbated by being exposed to your own stubbornness, Raist.”

“Fuck me,” was the depressed reply.

“Maybe another time. I have guard duty in ten.” Sturm blushed as the words caught up with him, but it was worth it for the spluttering snort-cough that Raistlin made, tears running down his cheeks.

“I’m dying,” the mage croaked, turning onto his side and coughing.

“Well die quietly. You know you aren’t meant to be here,” Sturm reminded with a smirk. He took a moment to check Raistlin was actually okay before leaving for his duties, the mage leaving a few minutes later for the Tower.

* * *

The Night of the Eye finally came. Steel was vibrating with excitement the entire day, and even more so when evening came, allowing the moons to be seen in the sky.

He ran to his Father’s home the second he could see the moons in the sky, bouncing from foot to foot as he banged on the door, eyes widening and mouth grinning when Raistlin opened the door, the mage’s robes swishing about his ankles. “I wish for a doggie!” he cried.

Raistlin put a hand to his chin in mock thought. “Hmm… very well, I can do that. But I get to pick the dog,” he reasoned with Steel. Mostly because the dog had already been selected, since he couldn’t actually conjure pets from thin air. Steel nodded eagerly. Raistlin said words of magic, adding a flicker of flashpowder for extra effect, leaving Steel stunned and looking around.

He didn’t have to look long. A bark sounded from inside the house, Steel ducking around Raistlin to investigate, and saw a ball of white and orange fur with short legs and big triangular ears suspended in the air. The dog didn’t look too comfortable at being levitated, but that did nothing to diminish the boy’s unbridled joy. “Yay! Yay yay yay!”

Wrapping an arm around the dog’s middle before cancelling the spell, Raistlin crouched to allow the puppy to reach the floor. And be petted by Steel.

“He’s called Dennis,” Raistlin said, smiling at Steel who looked ready to explode in joy.

Sturm leaned on the doorframe to the living room, eyes full of love for the family before him. “We can keep him if you help,” he told the boy. “You have to walk him and play with him at least once a day when you’re here.”

Steel nodded. “I can do that!”


End file.
